# timgit/pg-boss

Queueing jobs in Postgres from Node.js like a boss

Repository: https://github.com/timgit/pg-boss
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/pg-boss
Homepage: https://pgboss.io/
Language: TypeScript
License: MIT
License Family: permissive
Topics: postgresql, postgres, queue, nodejs, node, job
Last push: 2026-08-24T01:24:09+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 95/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:39:23.370411+00:00)
- activity 99, release rhythm 87, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 3840, "days_push": 10, "days_rel": 10, "gap_med": 2, "n_releases_24m": 78}
- flags: none
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 3901, forks 266 (observed 2026-08-28T04:08:28.535594+00:00)

## What it is
pg-boss is a Node.js job queue built on top of PostgreSQL, using SKIP LOCKED to provide exactly-once delivery and reliable background processing without extra infrastructure. It includes workflow orchestration, cron scheduling, queue policies, plus companion packages for a web dashboard, an HTTP proxy, and a schema-migration CLI.

## Use cases
- run background jobs from a Node.js app using an existing Postgres database
- enqueue jobs inside a database transaction with Drizzle, Knex, Kysely or Prisma
- schedule recurring cron jobs and deferred tasks
- orchestrate multi-step job dependency workflows
- replace RabbitMQ or Redis queues to reduce systems to operate
- retry failed jobs with exponential backoff and dead-letter queues
- monitor and manage queues through a web dashboard
- call the queue from non-Node runtimes via an HTTP proxy

## When to choose
- your stack already runs on PostgreSQL and you want queueing without extra infrastructure
- you need exactly-once delivery with atomic transactional enqueueing
- you want ORM adapters, cron scheduling, workflows, and rate limiting in one library
- you run serverless or multi-master deployments and need a stateless-friendly queue

## When to avoid
- you need very high throughput beyond what a single Postgres instance can handle
- your team has no Postgres operational experience or the database is not already part of your stack
- you need advanced message-queue features like multi-protocol consumers or long-lived streaming

## Facets
- artifact type: library
- maturity: stable
- function: message-queue, scheduling, workflow-automation, rate-limiting, cli, monitoring
- domain: databases, backend, developer-tools
- platform: self-hosted, serverless
- tags: job-queue, postgresql, background-jobs, exactly-once-delivery, cron-scheduling, orm-adapters, dead-letter-queue, pub-sub, pglite, dashboard, http-proxy, automation, messaging, nodejs, postgres, docker, kubernetes

## Member repositories
- timgit/pg-boss (main) score 95

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:08:28.535594+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-29T18:25:10.784290+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/timgit/pg-boss (fetched 2026-08-28T04:08:28.535594+00:00, sha e4c644b0f7ff)
  - homepage: https://pgboss.io/ (fetched 2026-08-29T09:19:37.497494+00:00, sha 17b2a488af55)
  - site_page: https://pgboss.io/dashboard (fetched 2026-08-29T09:19:37.508801+00:00, sha ce14bd30f901)
  - site_page: https://pgboss.io/proxy (fetched 2026-08-29T09:19:37.510602+00:00, sha 00b90a841c64)
  - site_page: https://pgboss.io/cli (fetched 2026-08-29T09:19:37.506594+00:00, sha ee437537639e)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.